G42 (company)
Emirati artificial intelligence company
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Group 42 Holding Ltd, doing business as G42, is an Emirati artificial intelligence (AI) development holding company founded in 2018 and based in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. It focuses on developing and deploying AI systems at scale through infrastructure and cloud-based platforms used across government and enterprise sectors, including healthcare and energy applications, as part of its broader AI ecosystem.[12][13]
| |
| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | |
| Founded | 2018 |
| Headquarters | Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates |
Area served | Middle East, Africa, Central Asia, Europe, United States |
Key people |
|
Number of employees | 25,000 (2024)[1] |
| Subsidiaries | |
| Website | g42 |
The company is chaired by Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan from the ruling family of the UAE, and Peng Xiao serves as founder and Group CEO.[14]
Group 42 was reported to be the sole registered shareholder of the messaging app ToTok.
Governance
The company is chaired by the National Security Advisor of the UAE, Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who is also its controlling shareholder.[15][16]
Peng Xiao is the Group Chief Executive Officer and a member of the board of directors.[17][18]
The Board of Directors includes Khaldoon Khalifa Al Mubarak, managing director and group chief executive officer of Mubadala Investment Company;[19] Jassem Mohamed Bu Ataba Al Zaabi, chairman of the Abu Dhabi Department of Finance;[20] Brad Smith, president and vice chair of Microsoft;[21] Egon Durban, co-chief executive officer of Silver Lake;[22] and Martin Edelman.[23][18]
History
2018–2019
G42 was founded in 2018 and is based in Abu Dhabi, UAE.[24] The company applies research and development and deploys AI solutions through its portfolio companies across various industries.[25]
In December 2019, Group 42 announced signing an agreement of strategic partnership with Abu Dhabi Developmental Holding Company (ADDH) to establish a joint venture called Adalytyx.[26]
As of 2019, G42 was reported by The New York Times to be the sole registered shareholder of ToTok, a messaging, video, and voice-calling application. The app was widely downloaded in multiple regions. In December 2019, The New York Times reported allegations that the application was used for surveillance purposes. Following the report, ToTok was removed from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.[27][28]
2020–present
In January 2020, G42 announced the acquisition of Bayanat for Mapping and Surveying Services LLC, an end-to-end provider of geospatial data products and services.[29][30] In 2020, state-owned Mubadala Investment Company took a stake in the company, transferring ownership of two information technology companies, Injazat and Khazna, to G42.[31] The next year, American private equity firm Silver Lake invested $800 million for a minority stake.[32][33]
In June 2020, G42 partnered with Sinopharm for clinical trials of a COVID-19 vaccine and in March 2021, they decided to produce the vaccine in Abu Dhabi.[34]
In July 2020, G42 announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding with the two Israeli defense groups, Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and Israel Aerospace Industries to research and develop methods to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, which the Israeli subsidiary Elta confirmed.[35][36]
In July 2023, G42 agreed to pay around $100 million to purchase the first of potentially nine supercomputers from Cerebras to deploy its AI technology to create chatbots and analyze genomic and preventive care data. Each supercomputer is capable of 4 exaflops of computing.[37][38][39]
In October 2023, a partnership was announced with OpenAI, the AI research and deployment company responsible for ChatGPT.[34] In November 2023, G42 purchased a $100 million stake in ByteDance,[34][40] which was divested four months later as an attempt to reassure its U.S. partners.[41]
In 2023, an investment unit, Lunate, was established under the International Holding Company to manage Group 42's China-focused 42X Fund, which has stakes in Beijing's JD.com and ByteDance. Lunate has over 160 employees, and is also overseen by Tahnoon bin Zayed. However, the establishment of a dedicated investment vehicle for China raised concerns around G42 and Peng Xiao's commitment to the US about divesting from China.[42][43]
In 2024, the Abu Dhabi government launched an investment firm specializing in AI technologies called MGX, with G42 and Mubadala as founding partners.[44]
In April 2024, Microsoft announced that it would invest $1.5 billion in G42. As part of the deal, Microsoft's president Brad Smith would join G42's board, and G42 said it would use the Microsoft Azure platform for its AI development and deployment.[45]
On May 22, 2025 G42 in collaboration with OpenAI, Oracle, NVIDIA, SoftBank Group and Cisco announced a partnership to build Stargate UAE.[46]
Portfolio companies
AIQ
AIQ was established in October 2020 as a joint venture between ADNOC and G42, focused on AI applications for the energy sector. It was formed following an agreement signed in November 2019. Under the original structure, ADNOC held a 60% stake, and G42 held 40%. The company integrates industrial data with AI and high-performance computing to develop energy-sector applications.[47]
In May 2024, Presight AI acquired a 51% stake in AIQ, with ADNOC retaining a 49% shareholding. The company continues to operate as an independent entity within Presight’s portfolio.[48][49]
In 2025, AIQ announced a three-year, $340 million contract with ADNOC to deploy its ENERGYai platform for upstream operations.[50]
Khazna Data Centers
In November 2020, G42 acquired Khazna Data Centers from Mubadala Investment Company as part of a broader transaction that also included the transfer of Injazat to G42, with Mubadala retaining a minority stake in the group. At the time, Khazna operated three data centers with a combined IT load capacity of 40MW.[51][52]
In October 2021, G42 and e& (formerly Etisalat Group) announced the consolidation of their data center facilities into the UAE’s largest data center provider. The joint venture, which concluded in 2022, operated with G42 holding a 60% stake and e& holding a 40% stake. The merger consolidated 12 facilities into a network with a projected capacity of 300MW.[53]
During the GITEX Global 2024 exhibition, Khazna announced the development of a 100MW data center in Ajman, designed for AI workloads, representing the largest individual data center in the company’s portfolio.[54][55]
In February 2025, e& announced it would be divesting its 40% stake in Khazna to G42, Silver Lake, and MGX.[56]
Presight
Presight is a data analytics and AI subsidiary of G42, founded in 2020. It develops large-scale analytics systems, including the Transformative Analytics Quotient (TAQ), used for predictive analytics applications in public sector and enterprise environments.[57]
In March 2023, Presight was listed on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange following an initial public offering that raised approximately $496 million.[58]
In February 2025, Presight entered a six-year, $190 million contract with the municipal government of Astana, Kazakhstan, to launch a smart city project in the city.[59] The project is intended to deploy AI technologies for traffic management, public safety, and public services.[60]
M42
In October 2022, G42 Healthcare and Mubadala Health announced a merger to form an integrated healthcare technology company combining data-driven health services and clinical infrastructure. The entity was launched as M42 in April 2023.[61][62]
Its portfolio included healthcare and diagnostics providers such as Biogenix Labs, HealthPoint Hospital, Moorfields Eye Hospital Abu Dhabi, and the Imperial College London Diabetes Centre.[62][61] Since its launch, M42 has expanded its operations to include over 20,000 employees and a network of more than 480 clinics across 26 countries.[63]
AstraTech
In December 2022, G42 was announced as the lead investor in a $500 million funding round for Astra Tech, a Dubai-based consumer technology group. The investment supported the development of an "ultra platform," a digital ecosystem designed to integrate communications, financial services, and e-commerce into a single interface.[64][65]
Following the investment, Astra Tech expanded its platform through acquisitions, including the communications application botim, which was integrated into its broader consumer ecosystem.[64]
Inception
Inception, formerly known as the Inception Institute of Artificial Intelligence, is an artificial intelligence research and applied AI entity within the G42 group focused on machine learning, large language models, and sector-specific AI applications.[66]
In August 2023, Inception was involved in the launch of Jais, an Arabic-English large language model developed in collaboration with MBZUAI and Cerebras Systems.[67] In October 2023, Inception was merged with G42 Cloud and Injazat to form Core42. It was later re-established as a standalone entity in 2024. Following this restructuring, Inception continued development of large language models, including the Jais model family.[66]
InceptionClaw, the company's sovereign, enterprise-grade AI super assistant, was launched in May 2026.[68]
Controversies
As of 2019, Group 42 was reportedly the sole registered shareholder of ToTok, a free messaging, video, and voice-calling mobile application. The application was downloaded by users in the Middle East, Asia, Europe, North America, and Africa, within several months. The application was accused of being "used by the government of the United Arab Emirates to try to track every conversation, movement, relationship, appointment, sound and image of those who install it", in a New York Times exposé in December 2019.[69] Following the allegations, the application was removed by Apple and Google from their application stores. The CEO of G42 has been leading Pegasus – a subsidiary of DarkMatter, an Emirati security firm, which received scrutiny over the hiring of former CIA and NSA officials to spy on Americans, dissidents, and political rivals. The company denied having any connection with DarkMatter.[70][71]
US government scrutiny
In 2020, G42 was reported to have donated BGI Group's Chinese-made Covid testing kits to Nevada. US intelligence and security officials objected to these testing kits, raising concerns over privacy risks, in that the gene-sequencing machines of the BGI Group could misuse the patients’ DNA. As of 2020, G42 was also reportedly working with BGI on a project for collecting genetic data of UAE citizens to "generate the highest quality, most comprehensive genome data".[72][73]
On November 27, 2023, according to The New York Times, U.S. authorities were concerned that G42 might serve as a channel through which sophisticated U.S. technology has been diverted to Chinese companies or the government. Concerns were raised about the involvement of Huawei in building G42's technology infrastructure. Intelligence reports cautioned that G42's interactions with sanctioned Chinese enterprises such as BGI Group could serve as a means to transfer the genetic data of millions of Americans and other individuals to the Chinese government.[34][40] Following the report by The New York Times, Peng Xiao stated that G42 would phase out its use of Huawei equipment.[74]
In January 2024, United States House Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party asked the United States Department of Commerce to impose export controls on G42 and 13 companies connected to it.[75] In response, G42 told the Financial Times in February 2024 that it had divested from all its investments in China.[41] In July 2024, U.S. representatives Michael McCaul and John Moolenaar asked the federal government for an intelligence assessment of G42's ties to the Chinese government and military as well as risks of intellectual property theft before a US$1.5 billion investment by Microsoft in G42 could advance.[76] The same month, the Select Committee accused UAE ambassador Yousef Al Otaiba of "personally intervening" to prevent it from meeting with representatives from G42.[77][78] Microsoft subsequently modified its investment in G42, allowing it more oversight.[78]
In May 2025, US president Donald Trump signed an agreement with G42 to build the largest artificial intelligence campus outside the United States in the UAE to counter Chinese influence. US President Biden's restrictions that blocked access to high end US chips to the UAE were also removed.[79] On July 16, 2025 The Wall Street Journal reported that some Trump officials were holding up efforts to finalize the agreement, proposing to cut off direct access of chips to G42. Slowing the deal has bothered some American officials including White House AI czar David O. Sacks.[80]
See also
- Finablr
- LocAI